I didn’t write this. I am just syndicating from a site that keeps trying to redirect me through a javascript hack.
This is a quick Howto for setting up MySQL cluster using Amazon EC2 instances. I have used 3 small instances (1 mgmt + 2 data nodes) from RightScale’s CentOS 5 public image to test things. I’ve a working cluster using these steps but there’s no guarantee that these steps works for you as well.
Management server for cluster:
Although we can set up management server for cluster in one of the data node but we should have a third node as if one of the two MySQL cluster nodes fails, and the management server is not running, then the data on the two cluster nodes will become inconsistent and if the same node fails which have management server, then we will not be able to create another node or configure cluster.
Beginning with MySQL 5.1.6, it is possible to store the non-indexed columns of NDB tables on disk, rather than in RAM as with previous versions of MySQL Cluster. Here I’m using MySQL 5.1.26-rc as its the latest version while writing this article.
Let’s dive in practical:
1. Fireup 3 instances and note down their public and private IPs, dedicate roles(mgmt, node) for them and login in management node. Install ncurses library for MySQL compilation requirement:
# yum install ncurses ncurses-devel
2. Download mysql source from its source download page:
# cd /usr/src
# groupadd mysql
# useradd -g mysql mysql
# wget http://dev.mysql.com/get/Downloads/MySQL-5.1/mysql-5.1.26-rc.tar.gz/from/ftp://mirror.services.wisc.edu/mirrors/mysql/
# tar xzf mysql-5.1.26-rc.tar.gz
# cd mysql-5.1.26-rc
3. Compile and install:
# ./configure –enable-community-features –with-mysqld-user=mysql –with-mysqlmanager –with-plugins=ndbcluster
# make && make install
4. Create required directories:
# mkdir -p /var/lib/mysql/mysql-cluster/backup
# chown -R mysql:mysql /var/lib/mysql
# cd /var/lib/mysql/mysql-cluster
# vim config.ini
—
[NDBD DEFAULT]
NoOfReplicas=2
DataMemory=80M # How much memory to allocate for data storage
IndexMemory=18M # How much memory to allocate for index storage
# For DataMemory and IndexMemory, we have used the
# default values. Since the “world” database takes up
# only about 500KB, this should be more than enough for
# this example Cluster setup.
[MYSQLD DEFAULT]
[NDB_MGMD DEFAULT]
[TCP DEFAULT]
# Section for the cluster management node
[NDB_MGMD]
# IP address of the management node (this system)
HostName=10.252.169.x
# Section for the storage nodes
[NDBD]
# IP address of the first storage node
HostName=10.254.237.x
DataDir=/var/lib/mysql/mysql-cluster
BackupDataDir=/var/lib/mysql/mysql-cluster/backup
DataMemory=2048M
[NDBD]
# IP address of the second storage node
HostName=10.251.74.x
DataDir=/var/lib/mysql/mysql-cluster
BackupDataDir=/var/lib/mysql/mysql-cluster/backup
DataMemory=2048M
# one [MYSQLD] per storage node
[MYSQLD]
[MYSQLD]
—
Save and close the file.
5. Start management server. You can also copy ndb_mgmd in system path for easy access.
# /usr/src/mysql-5.1.26-rc/storage/ndb/src/mgmsrv/ndb_mgmd -f /var/lib/mysql/mysql-cluster/config.ini
***
Setup of Node1 and Node2:
1. These settings are identical for Node 1 and Node 2. Let’s start by adding mysql user and group:
# groupadd mysql
# useradd -g mysql mysql
2. Install required ncurses library for MySQL compilation:
# yum install ncurses ncurses-devel
3. Download, compile and install MySQL:
# cd /usr/src
# wget http://dev.mysql.com/get/Downloads/MySQL-5.1/mysql-5.1.26-rc.tar.gz/from/ftp://mirror.services.wisc.edu/mirrors/mysql/
# tar xzf mysql-5.1.26-rc.tar.gz
# cd mysql-5.1.26-rc
# ./configure –enable-community-features –with-mysqld-user=mysql –with-mysqlmanager –with-plugins=ndbcluster
# make && make install
4. Install initial mysql db:
# /usr/src/mysql-5.1.26-rc/scripts/mysql_install_db –user=mysql
5. Create directories:
# mkdir -p /var/lib/mysql/mysql-cluster/backup
# chown -R mysql:mysql /var/lib/mysql
6. Copy init script from mysql source to preferred location:
# cp /usr/src/mysql-5.1.26-rc/support-files/mysql.server /etc/init.d/
# chmod 755 /etc/init.d/mysql.server
7. Create config file for MySQL:
# vim /etc/my.cnf
—
[mysqld]
datadir=/var/lib/mysql
socket=/var/lib/mysql/mysql.sock
# Default to using old password format for compatibility with mysql 3.x
# clients (those using the mysqlclient10 compatibility package).
old_passwords=1
ndbcluster
# IP address of the cluster management node
ndb-connectstring=10.253.191.210
default-storage-engine=NDBCLUSTER
#Those are for future tuning
#max_connections=341
#query_cache_size=16M
#thread_concurrency = 4
[client]
port=3306
socket=/var/lib/mysql/mysql.sock
[mysql.server]
user=mysql
basedir=/usr/local
[mysql_cluster]
# IP address of the cluster management node
ndb-connectstring=10.253.191.x
[mysqld_safe]
log-error=/var/log/mysqld.log
pid-file=/var/run/mysqld/mysqld.pid
—
Save and close the file.
8. You can also include MySQL directories in your path (Optional).
# PATH=$PATH:/usr/local/mysql/bin:/usr/local/mysql/libexec
# export PATH
9. Start MySQL Server now:
# /etc/init.d/mysql.server start
10. Repeat these steps in node 2 and start MySQL on both nodes. MySQL should start without any complain. You should also update the password for root user.
Test the cluster:
1. Focus again on Management node to have a look of Cluster connectivity. Open the ndb cluster management console. You should add this directory in PATH or can copy files to your system bin. (I’m a bit lazy 
# /usr/src/mysql-5.1.26-rc/storage/ndb/src/mgmclient/ndb_mgm
– NDB Cluster — Management Client –
2. Issue command to view status of cluster:
ndb_mgm> show;
Connected to Management Server at: localhost:1186
Cluster Configuration
———————
[ndbd(NDB)] 2 node(s)
id=2 @10.254.237.x (Version: 5.1.26, Nodegroup: 0, Master)
id=3 @10.251.74.x (Version: 5.1.26, Nodegroup: 0)
[ndb_mgmd(MGM)] 1 node(s)
id=1 @10.252.169.x (Version: 5.1.26)
[mysqld(API)] 2 node(s)
id=4 @10.254.237.x (Version: 5.1.26)
id=5 @10.251.74.x (Version: 5.1.26)
ndb_mgm> quit
Everything should run fine.
3. Jump on the node 1 (or 2, doesnt matter in a cluster 
and try to create db, table and issue commands. BE SURE to use ENGINE=NDBCLUSTER while table creation else cluster will not work, means data will not be replicated throughtout cluster. Insert some records and check that on other node.
Conclusion:
It’s a basic test cluster and I would not reccommend it for any production use. In fact, as per one of MySQL expert, “I would advise you to consider if MySQL Cluster is really a right choice for your project, it’s often not, probably in 99.9% of the cases I encountered, and does not give expected results” and when asking the alternate, “usually some MySQL/InnoDB in Master/Master, Master/Slave setup can work well enough to handle very high rate of transactions.”
Of course, ther are several considerations you have to take care, like network connectivity between instanes, backup to S3 and automatic promotion of second master in case first one failed. I’m looking on these and as well as on to setup Master/Master replication with S3 backup. I’ll post that here, once done.
